Shipload of road salt set to dock in N.J.

Feb. 19, 2014
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The seemingly endless parade of winter storms has almost emptied the salt barn at the Monmouth County Department of Public Works in Freehold, N.J. The county is mixing salt and sand to stretch salt supplies. / Jason Towlen, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

by Larry Higgs, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

by Larry Higgs, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press

PORT NEWARK, N.J. -- A shipload of badly needed rock salt is expected to land at Port Newark on Thursday, to be followed by a second ship scheduled to dock by the middle of next week, said officials from the region's largest salt supplier.

"There are several shipments en route and one of them is scheduled to arrive at Port Newark (Thursday)," said Mary Kay Warner, marketing manager for International Salt Company of Clarks Summit, Pa.

After weeks of non-stop winter storms, the state Department of Transportation as well as towns and counties are running out of salt, with many agencies mixing it with sand to stretch supplies. Most officials said their salt supplies would last for one more storm.

The ship scheduled to arrive Thursday will take several days to unload, Warner said. She declined to say how many tons of salt will arrive. The salt is mined in Chile.

"The demand is way up," she said. "One of the reasons is demand from areas which don't normally receive winter weather."

International serves 12 states northeastern region between North Carolina and New England.

"We're seeing a lot of increased demand from the Southern states," Warner said. "The demand is great due to the robust winter and the record-setting storms."

Meanwhile, state Department of Transportation officials are awaiting the first 9,500 ton barge shipment out of 40,000 tons of salt the state purchased in Searsport, Maine.

DOT officials had planned to load all that salt on a larger, foreign flagged vessel bound for Port Newark, but then learned that, under federal regulations, only American-flagged vessels can transport cargo between U.S. ports.